What Is a Fiscal Quarter? Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 Explained

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A fiscal quarter is one of four consecutive three-month periods that make up a company’s or government’s fiscal year. The four are labeled Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4, and Q4 always ends on the last day of the fiscal year. For an organization whose fiscal year matches the calendar year, Q1 runs January through March, Q2 April through June, Q3 July through September and Q4 October through December. Many organizations use a different year, so knowing which quarter we are in depends on whose calendar you are reading.

What Is a Fiscal Quarter?

An organization has two main accounting periods: the fiscal year (FY) and the fiscal quarter. The fiscal year is the 12-month cycle the organization uses for its books, budgets and annual report. It can start in any month. The fiscal quarter divides that year into four equal or nearly equal parts so performance can be measured, reported and compared four times a year instead of once.

“Quarterly” therefore means four times a year, about every three months. A quarterly report, a quarterly dividend or a quarterly tax payment each happens once per quarter.

The word “fiscal” is the key qualifier. A calendar quarter is tied to the January to December year and never moves. A fiscal quarter is tied to the organization’s own year, and it lines up with the calendar quarter only when the fiscal year starts on January 1. When someone says “the second quarter” in a business context, the answer to “when is Q2?” depends on whose fiscal year is meant.

Calendar Quarter Dates: Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4

When an organization uses the calendar year, or when people speak about the year in general, the quarters of the year are:

• Q1 (first quarter): January 1 to March 31 (January, February, March); 90 days, or 91 in a leap year
• Q2 (second quarter): April 1 to June 30 (April, May, June); 91 days
• Q3 (third quarter): July 1 to September 30 (July, August, September); 92 days
• Q4 (fourth quarter): October 1 to December 31 (October, November, December); 92 days

The quarters are not identical in length. Q1 is the shortest because of February, and Q3 and Q4 each have 92 days. That difference of up to two days can matter when comparing daily sales, interest accruals or anything measured per day across quarters.

To work out what quarter we are in right now on the calendar basis, divide the month number by three and round up. A date in May (month 5) falls in Q2, because 5 ÷ 3 = 1.67, which rounds up to 2. A date in August (month 8) is Q3, and a date in November (month 11) is Q4. The first half of the year (H1) is Q1 plus Q2, and the second half (H2) is Q3 plus Q4.

The same arithmetic works for a fiscal calendar once you count months from the start of the fiscal year rather than from January. If a fiscal year starts in February, February is fiscal month 1, so a date in August (fiscal month 7) falls in fiscal Q3.

How a Fiscal Quarter Works

Choosing a fiscal year

A company picks a fiscal year end that suits its operating cycle, and the quarters follow from that choice. Two common reasons drive the choice.

The first is to close the year after the busiest season, so the annual report captures the whole peak and the planning for the next year starts with complete results. Retailers that end their year in late January include the full holiday shopping period in their fourth quarter.

The second is the opposite: to close the books in a quiet month. Year-end work (counting inventory, closing accounts, preparing for the audit) is heavy, and doing it during a slow period keeps it from competing with peak operations.

Companies that depend on U.S. government contracts sometimes end their fiscal year in September, because the federal fiscal year ends September 30 and new contract awards and budget information arrive around that time.

52- or 53-week years and 4-4-5 calendars

Not every fiscal quarter is exactly three calendar months. The IRS lets businesses use a 52- or 53-week tax year that always ends on the same day of the week, such as the last Saturday of a given month or the Saturday nearest the end of that month. A 52-week year has 364 days, one short of a calendar year, so every five or six years the calendar drifts enough that a 53rd week is added.

Companies that use week-based years often split them into quarters of 13 weeks each. A common pattern is the 4-4-5 calendar, where each quarter consists of two four-week months and one five-week month (variations are 4-5-4 and 5-4-4). The benefit is that every quarter has the same number of weeks and the same number of each weekday, which makes comparisons cleaner for businesses whose sales depend on weekends. The cost is that in a 53-week year one quarter, often the fourth, has 14 weeks, which inflates that quarter compared with the prior year unless the company adjusts for it.

Reading quarter labels

A quarter label has two parts. In “Q4 2025,” “Q4” is the quarter and “2025” is the year. Read on a calendar basis, Q4 2025 means October 1 to December 31, 2025.

Labels become ambiguous when a fiscal year spans two calendar years. Many companies name the fiscal year after the calendar year in which it ends. Under that convention, a company whose fiscal year ends in late January 2026 calls the year “fiscal 2026,” even though almost all of it took place in 2025. The U.S. federal government follows the same convention: fiscal year 2025 began October 1, 2024 and ended September 30, 2025. Some companies use a different naming rule, so the dates printed in the report, not the label, settle which months are covered. Writers often add “FY” or “fiscal” (“fiscal Q3,” “Q3 FY2026”) to signal that the company’s own calendar applies.

Why Is a Fiscal Quarter Important?

Quarterly reports: Form 10-Q and Form 10-K

In the United States, public companies file a quarterly report on Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission after each of their first three fiscal quarters. A 10-Q contains financial statements (an income statement, a balance sheet and a cash flow statement) plus management’s discussion of results for the quarter and the year to date. These statements are reviewed by the company’s auditors but not audited.

There is no 10-Q for the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report on Form 10-K, which includes audited financial statements and broader disclosures about risks, operations and governance. Many companies still announce fourth-quarter figures in their earnings release, and an analyst can derive fourth-quarter results by subtracting the nine-month year-to-date figures in the Q3 10-Q from the full-year figures in the 10-K.

Filing deadlines are measured from the end of the period, not from the calendar quarter:

• Form 10-Q: 40 days after quarter end for large accelerated and accelerated filers, 45 days for other filers
• Form 10-K: 60 days after fiscal year end for large accelerated filers, 75 days for accelerated filers, 90 days for other filers

This is why “earnings season” clusters in the weeks after each calendar quarter ends, when the many calendar-year companies report together, while companies with non-calendar fiscal years report on their own schedule.

Earnings, guidance and stock prices

Each quarterly release is a scheduled moment when investors learn new information about revenue, margins, cash generation and outlook. Results above or below analysts’ expectations can move a stock’s price sharply in either direction.

Many companies also issue guidance: management’s expectations for the next quarter or the full fiscal year. Analysts use guidance to update their own estimates. A weak forecast can push a stock down even when the quarter just reported was strong, and an upgraded outlook can lift it. Because the cycle repeats every three months, quarterly reporting effectively sets the rhythm of corporate communication with investors.

Quarterly dividends

U.S. companies that pay dividends commonly pay them quarterly, in roughly equal amounts. Practice differs in other markets: some companies pay an interim dividend partway through the year and a larger final dividend after the annual results, and others pay only once a year.

Each dividend has an ex-dividend date. Buyers who purchase the stock on or after that date do not receive the upcoming payment, and the share price typically adjusts downward by about the dividend amount when the stock begins trading ex-dividend. Some investors reassess or sell holdings around ex-dates, particularly when dividend growth appears to be slowing.

Quarterly estimated taxes

Quarters also matter outside corporate reporting. The IRS requires individuals who expect to owe tax that is not covered by withholding (for example, self-employed people or those with significant investment income) to make estimated tax payments, generally using Form 1040-ES.

These “quarterly” payments do not follow calendar quarters. For a calendar-year taxpayer, the payment periods and usual due dates are:

1. January 1 to March 31, due April 15
2. April 1 to May 31, due June 15
3. June 1 to August 31, due September 15
4. September 1 to December 31, due January 15 of the following year

When a due date falls on a weekend or legal holiday, it moves to the next business day. The second period covers only two months and the fourth covers four, so treating these as calendar quarters can lead to a missed or late payment.

Government fiscal years

Governments run on fiscal years too. The U.S. federal government’s fiscal year runs October 1 to September 30, so its fiscal Q1 is October, November and December. Most U.S. states use a fiscal year that runs July 1 to June 30, which makes their fiscal Q1 July through September. The UK government’s financial year runs April 1 to March 31. Budget reports, spending data and agency statistics are often published on these fiscal quarters rather than calendar ones.

Example of a Fiscal Quarter

Companies with non-calendar fiscal years

Several large companies illustrate how fiscal quarters shift:

• Apple ends its fiscal year on the last Saturday of September. Its fiscal Q1 therefore covers roughly October through December, which captures holiday sales and the first full months after its usual September iPhone launches.
• NVIDIA ends its fiscal year on the last Sunday of January, so its fourth quarter includes the holiday period that matters for gaming and consumer technology sales.
• Walmart ends its fiscal year on January 31. Its Q1 is February through April and its Q4 is November through January, so the entire holiday shopping season lands in one quarter.
• Costco runs its fiscal year from September through the following August, so its fiscal fourth quarter includes June, July and August.
• AMD ends its fiscal year on the last Saturday of December. Its quarters stay close to calendar quarters, but as a week-based calendar, the exact end dates move slightly from year to year.
• H&R Block changed its fiscal year end from April 30 to June 30 in 2021, saying the change better aligned complete tax seasons within comparable fiscal periods.

Because of these differences, “Q3 results” from two companies can cover different months. Apple’s fiscal Q3 covers roughly April through June, while a calendar-year company’s Q3 covers July through September.

Worked example: mapping fiscal quarters

Hypothetical example. A retailer’s fiscal year ends January 31. To find its quarters, count three months back from each quarter end:

• Fiscal Q1: February 1 to April 30
• Fiscal Q2: May 1 to July 31
• Fiscal Q3: August 1 to October 31
• Fiscal Q4: November 1 to January 31

Suppose the retailer’s fiscal year ends January 31, 2026, and it names its fiscal years after the calendar year in which they end. Then “Q3 fiscal 2026” is August 1 to October 31, 2025, while “Q3 2025” on a calendar basis would mean July 1 to September 30, 2025. The two labels overlap for only two months (August and September), so a reader who mixes them up compares mostly different periods.

Comparing quarters when sales are seasonal

Many businesses are seasonal. A retailer might earn a large share of its annual profit in the holiday quarter, while a construction firm may do most of its work in warmer months. Comparing a quarter with the one immediately before it (a sequential, or quarter-over-quarter, comparison) can then mislead.

Hypothetical example. A department store reports sales of $500 million in its holiday quarter and $300 million in the following quarter. A sequential view shows a 40% drop. If the same post-holiday quarter a year earlier brought $280 million, the year-over-year view shows growth of about 7% ($300 million ÷ $280 million − 1). The second comparison removes most of the seasonal pattern and says more about the business itself.

Slow quarters can also be informative. If a seasonal company grows sales and profit in its off-season compared with the same off-season a year earlier, that improvement suggests underlying strength rather than a seasonal bump. Auto dealers, for example, often have a slow first quarter; meaningful growth there compared with the prior year’s first quarter can hint at stronger results later in the year, though it does not guarantee them.

Building a trailing four-quarter view

Annual statements arrive only once a year, so by the time a company is three quarters into a new fiscal year, its last 10-K is old. Analysts handle this with a trailing four quarters, or trailing twelve months (TTM), figure: the sum of the four most recently reported quarters.

Hypothetical example. A company reported full-year revenue of $1,000 million last fiscal year. It has now reported the first three quarters of the current year: $240 million, $260 million and $270 million, a nine-month total of $770 million. Last year’s first three quarters totaled $730 million.

TTM revenue = most recent full fiscal year + current year-to-date − prior year’s same year-to-date period

TTM revenue = $1,000M + $770M − $730M = $1,040M

The result equals the three new quarters plus last year’s fourth quarter ($1,000M − $730M = $270M). The calculation assumes all figures use the same accounting basis and that no quarter contains an extra week; a 14-week quarter in a 53-week year would overstate the total unless adjusted. The same method applies to earnings, EBITDA or free cash flow, and each new quarter replaces the oldest one in the window, so the TTM figure reflects a strengthening or weakening trend sooner than the annual report does.

Limitations of a Fiscal Quarter

Short-term pressure. The most common criticism of quarterly reporting is that it pushes executives to meet analysts’ expectations every three months, potentially at the expense of long-term investment. Spending on research, maintenance or capital projects can be delayed to protect a quarter’s earnings.

Unaudited figures. Interim financial statements in a 10-Q are reviewed, not audited. They are useful for tracking trends but carry less assurance than the audited annual statements in a 10-K, and they may be revised later.

Seasonality and calendar effects. A single quarter can look unusually strong or weak because of holidays, weather, product launch timing or the number of selling days. A holiday that falls in March one year and April the next moves sales between Q1 and Q2.

Unequal periods. Calendar quarters range from 90 to 92 days, and week-based calendars occasionally produce a 14-week quarter. Growth rates between periods of different lengths include part of that length difference unless adjusted.

Comparisons across companies. Two companies’ “Q2” can cover different months. Comparing a calendar-year company’s Q2 with a company whose fiscal year ends in September compares different seasons and different economic conditions.

Timing lag. A quarter’s results reach the public weeks after the quarter ends, under the SEC deadlines described above, so the information already describes the past when it is published.

Fiscal Quarter vs. Related Terms

Fiscal quarter vs. calendar quarter. A calendar quarter is always January to March, April to June, July to September or October to December. A fiscal quarter follows the organization’s fiscal year and matches the calendar quarter only when the fiscal year starts January 1.

Fiscal quarter vs. fiscal year. The fiscal year is the full 12-month (or 52- or 53-week) reporting cycle. The fiscal quarter is one-fourth of it. The fourth fiscal quarter and the fiscal year end on the same date.

Quarter vs. half. Some companies, particularly outside the United States, report semiannually in halves. H1 covers Q1 and Q2; H2 covers Q3 and Q4. A company that reports in halves may publish fewer detailed results each year.

Quarter end vs. reporting date. The quarter ends on a fixed date; the results are announced and filed later. A company’s “Q3 earnings” are often released in the month after Q3 ends, which can make it seem as if the quarter is still running.

Tax quarters vs. fiscal quarters. IRS estimated tax periods for individuals have unequal lengths and due dates that fall after each period ends, so they match neither calendar quarters nor most corporate fiscal quarters.

FAQs

The Bottom Line

Fiscal quarters matter to investors, analysts and self-employed taxpayers who track results, dividends or estimated tax payments. Before comparing any two quarters, check the actual dates each one covers, since a company's Q3 may not match the calendar Q3. For seasonal businesses, compare a quarter with the same quarter a year earlier, and adjust for any 14-week quarter in a 53-week year.